"The OLD MEDIA can not, must not be Trusted ever again!"
Your point is solid. It is hugely ludicrous for people to call themselves "journalists," yet promise not to report relevant things heard from a candidate during a NATIONAL election! The obvious question to these so called "journalists" is: - Then why did you bother covering Kerry in the first place? What's the point?
The damage this does to journalists in future campaigns is clearly evident. The question one asks is: "What did you promise to conceal in return for being allowed to tag along with the candidate?"
It becomes evident, again, that the suppression of the truth by CNN during Hussein's rule was not an anomoly, they were simply following the example set by the OM.
Read the whole series! Here is a sample, released today:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6420967/site/newsweek/
"... The Swifties had bought only a few hundred thousand dollars' worth of ads, but each played over and over—free—on the cable channels, CNN and MSNBC as well as Fox. The Swift Boat charges were the source of constant debate in the blogosphere, the new online world of bloggers, the modern-day Internet pamphleteers whose screeds were widely read—especially by the young bookers and producers who set the agenda on cable TV. With all this churning in the new media, the story was bound to spill out into the undecided electorate. ...
The Kerry campaign did work closely with the major dailies, feeding documents to The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe to debunk the Swift Boat vets. The articles were mostly (though not entirely) supportive of Kerry, but it was too late. The old media may have been more responsible than the new media, but they were also largely irrelevant."